Ercole Pignatelli (Lecce, 1935) is considered one of the great masters of art. He participated in the Venice Biennale in 1978 and again in 2011, at the invitation of the Italian Pavilion.

In 1997, an exhibition opened in Japan showcasing a dialogue between Picasso and Pignatelli. In 2011, at the invitation of the President of the Region, he created two large murals in the Palazzo Lombardia in Milan. In 2015, he created the performance "The Labors of Hercules" at the Milan Triennale, painting a 120-square-meter canvas in 24 days. This performance retraces, in a personal way, his own myth and his vision of art as original labor, a tension between body and spirit. In 2020, his autobiography, Ercole Pignatelli. Metamorphosis, edited by Fortunato D'Amico, was published. In 2024, at the Sala delle Cariatidi of the Palazzo Reale in Milan, he paid homage to Picasso with the performance "Memento Amare Semper," reinterpreting Guernica through a 12-day pictorial cycle in which light, sign, and memory merge in a contemporary pictorial ritual.

He has exhibited in iconic spaces such as the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, the Castello di Carlo V in Lecce, the Galleria del Naviglio, the Cavallino in Venice, Studio Marconi, Studio Tega, Galerie Koller in Zurich, the Cosmopolitan Art Gallery in Veglie, Galleria Il Mappamondo, Galleria Lausanne, Nardò, Galleria Blu, and numerous other venues in Italy and abroad. He has held exhibitions in New York, San Francisco, Saint-Paul de Vence, Manneheim, Otaru, the European Parliament in Brussels, Palm Beach, Lisbon, Washington, Toledo, Madrid, Mougins, Zurich, Nice, and Philadelphia. His works are held in important private and public collections worldwide.